Posts about User experience

Designing a product with the intention of being “white labelled” means that you are creating a software for a client to incorporate into their existing (visual language) system. Every now and then design consultants are hired by another consultant to work on a third party’s existing system. This what you call a super white label. Here, you not only have to consider your client’s needs, but your client’s client’s needs, too. It can be easy to start designing with everyone’s goals in mind and eventually lose focus, leaving no one satisfied in the end. These are some basic tips I’ve found that to help start and manage a white labelled project.

It can be easy to start designing with everyone’s goals in mind and eventually lose focus, leaving no one satisfied in the end.

I made up a useful word a while ago, though I doubt I’m the first to have done so. The word is solutionize, and it means “to come up with a solution for a problem that hasn’t been defined (and might or might not even exist).” Solutionizing leads to solutionization, or “any outcome of the act of solutionizing.”

This all sounds like nonsense, because it is nonsense. The word solutionize comes from materials science and has nothing to do with design.

The word is solutionize, and it means “to come up with a solution for a problem that hasn’t been defined (and might or might not even exist).”

Being an interaction designer means you’re aware of improvements that can be made in the things you use every day. This one is about the notifications in Twitter’s iPhone app. Hey, Twitter! Here’s an easy win.

So you’re on your iPhone when it buzzes in your hand. Hey, neat! A Twitter somethingorother. You open the app, only to see that there are no notifications for your current Twitter profile.

That’s cool. It must be for one of the other Twitter profiles you use. So you open the list of profiles only to see…nothing. No hint of where this little tweet of goodness awaits you.

Being an interaction designer means you’re aware of improvements that can be made in the things you use every day. This one is about the notifications in Twitter’s iPhone app. Hey, Twitter! Here’s an easy win.So you’re on your iPhone when it buzzes in your hand. Hey, neat! A Twitter somethingorother. You open the app, only to see that there [...]

A strong design process is the cornerstone of creating a great user experience. But finding one that’s right for your company isn’t easy. Each organization is different, and adapting a process to the specific constraints you face is a huge challenge, especially in an organization that might still be a little uncomfortable with design.

The human-centered visual design process we follow and teach at Cooper, based on the three key practices below.

As a design theory nerd, I’ve had the opportunity to explore a lot of different design methodologies. Though they can vary greatly, a few key practices have emerged that seem to drive every methodology I’ve looked at. Approaching design in terms of these individual practices, rather than as an end-to-end process, can help you to integrate human-centered design into your organization in a more fluid way. Smaller and more incremental changes driven by these practices, rather than a complete overhaul, are a great way to begin building a design-centered organization without upending the current system.

A strong design process is the cornerstone of creating a great user experience. But finding one that’s right for your company isn’t easy. Each organization is different, and adapting a process to the specific constraints you face is a huge challenge, especially in an organization that might still be a little uncomfortable with design.The human-centered visual design process we follow [...]

Go behind the scenes in this two-part Masters In Conversation series with Alan Cooper, exploring the origins and applications of Goal-Directed Design (GDD). In Part 1 we rewind to the early 1970s when Alan was just starting out and the climate of programming and design was changing rapidly, forging the insights that led to the techniques of GDD. Part 2 brings us up to date with GDD as Cooper designers and teachers apply it today.

Part 1: In the Beginning…

Go behind the scenes in this two-part Masters In Conversation series with Alan Cooper, exploring the origins and applications of Goal-Directed Design (GDD). In Part 1 we rewind to the early 1970s when Alan was just starting out and the climate of programming and design was changing rapidly, forging the insights that led to the techniques of GDD. Part 2 [...]

The UX Boot Camp: Kiva

Kick off your spring at the Cooper studio with our upcoming UX Boot Camp with Kiva, held March 11-14, in San Francisco, CA. This deep-dive promises to be one of our most inspiring, as designers, developers and project managers work together to support Kiva’s mission to eliminate poverty worldwide by connecting people through microloans.

The UX Boot Camp: KivaKick off your spring at the Cooper studio with our upcoming UX Boot Camp with Kiva, held March 11-14, in San Francisco, CA. This deep-dive promises to be one of our most inspiring, as designers, developers and project managers work together to support Kiva’s mission to eliminate poverty worldwide by connecting people through microloans.Sound like a [...]

Led by senior designers from Cooper, UX Boot Camp participants got their hands dirty learning new UX design techniques, collaborating with new teams, and working closely with stakeholders from Canine Companions.

From kickoff to design delivery, UX Boot Camp participants took a hands-on role in the generation, exploration, and synthesis of five distinct and fully-developed design concepts.

How do you design an engaging and educational application that prepares a user with short-term memory loss for a lifestyle change?For the November UX Boot Camp, designers, developers, and product managers from around the world teamed up to answer that very challenge for Canine Companions for Independence, the largest non-profit provider of service dogs.Led by senior designers from Cooper, UX [...]

The Cooper Journal has been a great source for design ideas, controversy and practical guidance over the years, so much so that we now have hundreds of posts. But even when a system works well, you start to see its breaking points. And with that, comes a need to reassess. Which is why we're staging an experiment—and it involves you.

It all started with a simple question: How can we design a better Journal reading experience that takes advantage of the dynamic web platform? The first answer was remove stuff. Traditional blog layouts are bullied by their sidebars. So when you visit the experiment you'll see we nixed the sidebar. We decided that a full column experience with more legible type would feel better. Not only that, but we could break the grid for images and pull quotes to create interest.

And why stop removing stuff there? There are posts that have sparked discussion, but it's unfortunate to limit those conversations to our own site. We want interesting discussions to be open, rather than hidden deep within the blog hierarchy. Say goodbye to the comments and hello to a custom twitter feature.

Admittedly, during the exercise we had bit of an existential crisis. Are we reinventing the wheel? We wanted a new comments structure to allow for good conversation, but there's Branch. We wanted a smooth reading and editing experience, and Medium already comes to mind. We wanted a simple way for Cooperistas to post quick bits of content…wouldn't Twitter suffice?

Our answer channels Charles Eames:

"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."

Blog posts, comments, tweets, these are all interesting things, but we believe that the connection missing is the topic. By sectioning off our experiment from the main Journal, we've been able to play with the format. Having removed the noise, we can now add in signal. Say hello to the Curator's Manifesto: Each topic we curate has thinking behind it and we have a unique perspective that we add. The manifesto is the place where we can be explicit about our point of view and spotlight featured posts. Since we're focused on one topic, we can serve up the most interesting post of the moment.

Our debut topic feature centers on Design Tools. We've got a couple oldies but goodies and a couple posts fresh off the press. The Cooper Journal environment you are presently in will continue to stay the same with sidebars and comments as we collect your reactions to this new direction, and continue to develop it. We'd love for you to join us in this first topic, be inspired, share some inspiration, and get talking!

.post-body img{outline: 2px dotted #E6E6E6;}The Cooper Journal has been a great source for design ideas, controversy and practical guidance over the years, so much so that we now have hundreds of posts. But even when a system works well, you start to see its breaking points. And with that, comes a need to reassess. Which is why we're staging an [...]

In service of spreading design awareness and education, Cooper U is bringing its foundational training inInteraction Design to Philadelphia on December 3-6 to cap off a great 2013. Throughout the year we’ve received many requests from our design peers to bring our training east, so when we had the opportunity to add another class to the schedule, we thought Philadelphia would be the perfect location.

In service of spreading design awareness and education, Cooper U is bringing its foundational training in Interaction Design to Philadelphia on December 3-6 to cap off a great 2013. Throughout the year we’ve received many requests from our design peers to bring our training east, so when we had the opportunity to add another class to the schedule, we thought [...]

What is UX Boot Camp?

Cooper’s UX Boot Camp is a four-day immersion in our user experience design methodology for designers, developers, and product managers. The UX Boot Camp is also an opportunity for nonprofits to explore a challenge they are facing that can be helped by design and technology. Under the guidance of Cooper senior staff, UX Boot Camp students perform an in-depth field study surrounding that challenge, and the nonprofit receives multiple design explorations at no cost.

See what the students and stakeholders had to say about their experience

What is UX Boot Camp? Cooper’s UX Boot Camp is a four-day immersion in our user experience design methodology for designers, developers, and product managers. The UX Boot Camp is also an opportunity for nonprofits to explore a challenge they are facing that can be helped by design and technology. Under the guidance of Cooper senior staff, UX Boot Camp [...]